Surprises
The hotel was well appointed, with their room having two bedrooms, two beds in each one. Sheila would take one, and Wade and Tom the other.
That is, if she could get to sleep.
"What's keeping her?" Tom said.
"Probably the natural response to "can I give the nice cops permission to dig your wife and daughter's bodies up?""
"Yeah…what if we don't get permission."
"We try and get a court order…but I'd really prefer not to go that route." Sheila paused, "Look at this, Tom."
"Yeah?"
"Mathboy ran a analysis on various unexplained deaths—especially of criminal figures, or those involved in criminal activity."
"And?"
"There's been a spike over the last two years—attributed to various causes."
"And you think?"
"Yeah. You saw the tape—she was no amateur. Before, I'd be willing to attribute the seven deaths to one lucky pro…but I'm wondering how badly we've undercounted her score card."
"Well, we have leads" Tom said. "Now that we know who she might be."
"Too damn many leads." Sheila groused, "none of which seem to be connected to each other. A pair of faked deaths, a killer 17 year old? Do not even suggest that some prophet said: "Hey, that kid in pre-K? Yeah, the one with the stuffed animal. Man, fake her death and before she graduates she'll be one stone cold killa." No. There are other things here that we don't know yet."
"What do you think they could be?"
"Well, for one, I'm beginning to thinkthe mom didn't commit a crime."
"Than why run?" Sheila's eyes suddenly looked feral, a tiny green glow reminding Tom of her powers.
"Well, I don't know, Tom…most solid citizens go to the cops, unless they have a reason not to…" She paused, and turned back to Wade.
"Math Lad, pull up a complete file on that case against Kim's mom—not just about her, but evidence, witnesses, all involved cops and attorneys—everything. Focus on anything odd about the other participants."
"Okay." Two minutes later, Wade looked up, surprised.
"Here it is."
"Already?"
"There isn't much." He said, with some surprise. "Just a few new stories, the investigation, and that's it."
"Let me see that." Sheila paused, and blinked. The original report hadn't had a lot of data, and honestly, she hadn't been interested in it, being more concerned with the present. But now that the past seemed to be intruding on to the present…
"Odd. Very damned odd."
"Yeah?"
"No follow up. None at all. You'd expect that there would be some interest in finding out who she was selling the drugs to." Sheila said.
"Unless she really wasn't selling them?" Wade asked.
"Don't' run ahead. There could be other reasons for this." Tom quietly commented, but without a lot of certainty.
"Well, we'-" The hotel phone rang and Sheila got it.
"Hello? Yes. Yes, we can do that. We have a lab in Middleton. Thank you. Do you…no, I see, I agree. Thank-" Sheila paused, looked at the phone where someone had just hung up, and completed her statement. "You."
"Who?"
"Ann Possible. They've agreed, but we shouldn't be around for the disinterment. Not unless we want to risk James Possible giving one of us a fat lip." She shrugged. "So we stay far away, but close enough to make certain those bodies in the ground are the ones we see in the lab."
"You don't trust them?"
"Right now I don't trust anyone." She turned to Wade and frowned momentarily. "OK, Kid, sack time."
"But I want to check out the systems performance…"
"You can try and subvert the Bureau's network for an Everlot hack later. Bed now. We have an early day tomorrow."
"Yes Sheila." As Wade headed off to the other room, Tom raised his eyebrows.
"You're pretty hard on the kid."
"Harder than I am on you?"
"I went to Quantico." Sheila shrugged.
"And Math Lad is smarter than either of us."
"You don't like it?"
"I worry about it." She said, "He's got way too many people telling him how brilliant he is. Smarts and common sense don't always come in the same package."
"So he made a few mistakes." Now Sheila was glaring at Tom.
"He hacked a server system that handled everything from payroll to drug tests—just fixing and upgrading cost them over one million dollars." She paused, "If some kid from the wrong side of town managed to do that much property damage, we'd lock him up and throw away the key."
"You think we should do that to him?"
"No. But we shouldn't forget that he needs to learn respect for property, and not treat him like the Second Coming." She paused, "Sorry, Tom—my hot button issue." Tom didn't say anything. Sheila was notoriously reticent about her past. "In my home town we were the welfare kids from the white trash family—granted, I was Asian, but you get the point. The rich kids could basically destroy whatever they wanted and well, it was just hijinks. I can't count all the times I was braced by the cops." She paused, "Of course, then that comet hit and all was forgiven."
"Yeah. Um…Sheila?" Tom decided to take a risk to satisfy a question he'd had ever since he'd partnered with her.
"Yes?"
"Why did you break up with your brothers?" He quickly raised a hand, "I mean, if it isn't personal and all."
"It's always personal with family." Sheila said, quietly. "We had this team, that ridiculous power—a rogues gallery of equally ridiculous villains…" She paused, "And we did nothing with it." Standing up, Sheila looked out the window, the town, small to someone who lived in LA. "We almost never did anything with regular criminals, and when we did, most cases lasted just long enough for the defense attorney to file a motion to dismiss. By the time I left, the DA wasn't even bothering to file charges."
"Didn't you try to make it so they would stand up?"
"I thought about it. I read a bunch of books, but Hego and the others, well, they were more interested in the cameras." Sheila looked pensive for a moment, "No, that's not entirely fair. They wanted a happy, hallmark ending, where the bad guy goes to jail. Not where you send a guy to jail, but than you have to go to court, and hope he doesn't get out and hope to god you got the right guy, and meanwhile you can't do anything about what he's already done."
"And you?"
"I'm problem oriented. I was always the one who tried to keep things running before fame and fortune were ours." In another, that would have been arrogance, but Tom had worked with Sheila, and he doubted she'd ever simply worked her required number of hours. Quite often she was working when he left for the night and back at work—if she'd ever left, when he came back in the morning.
"This is where the important stuff happens." Sheila said, indicating them. "Not winning the war for good—but keeping things running. We can't solve the worlds problems, or be some fairy godmothers, but we can damn well try and keep our chunk of it running." She paused, "and right now, that means figuring out how a five year old turns into a killer."
The next morning Sheila, Wade and Tom were all in the rental car, at a point overlooking the cemetery.
"They've disinterred the coffins." Tom said.
"Good." Sheila said. "There was one case…"
"What happened?" Wade asked.
"It was an old wooden coffin, and when we brought it up it…fell apart. Along with who was in it."
"Eugh." Wade said, regretting his large breakfast.
"OK… they're loaded. Let's go meet them at the lab." Sheila said. Of course, they'd meet them after following them, just in case there was a switch. She didn't believe so, but you could never be certain…"
At the lab, the two coffins were placed in the medical examiners lab. The adult Possible Family was there, including Sarah Renton. None of them smiled, or offered their hands, or made any chit chat. Sarah Renton was an attractive woman, whose normally pleasant blue eyes were ice cold looking at Sheila and Tom, as she had James' arm in hers, attitude defensive and angry on behalf of her companion.
"We will know in a short bit." Sheila said.
"So fast?"
"The equipment is very advanced." Wade said, and than subsided before a quelling look from Sheila. "Maybe I should hel-"
"No. You're not a member of the Bureau." Sheila said. "This is all being logged and recorded, in case it comes up in court one day."
"As what?" James Possible said, advancing on her, Sarah at his side. "Another public crucifixion?"
"Actually, the sense I got from the hospital, was that if anything people were reluctant to believe the allegations." Sheila said quietly. "Did you believe that someone had an ulterior motive?" The glare he sent her could have melted steel.
"Given that my wife would never have committed those crimes, or endangered her daughter in any way, I assume someone had such a motive….and the police were only too happy to assist by closing the investigation." Sheila didn't say anything for a moment. Families often ahd a hard time believing…unpleasant truths. But this case was…different.
"Agent Go?" The ME came over the intercom.
"Yes? Do you have a match?"
"Err… I think we'd better speak privately." Sheila shook her head.
"No. It's their family—or it's not."
"It's not." James Possible looked like he might pass out, actually swaying for a moment, and Nana closed her eyes, either in prayer or shock, Sheila couldn't tell. The ME was continuing. "And it's not just DNA… Agent Go, the larger body is male."
To be continued.